The Reckoning
by april93
Summary: This is my version of what I think will happen in the third book of the series. On permanant hiatus as of 2.12.11
1. Chapter 1

I sat on the garden swing outside, it was cold but it didn't bother me that much. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my chin on them. The sun had made a vague appearance in the sky earlier in the morning but now the sky was clouded, the day matched my mood. We had only managed to escape from the Edison Group by the skins of our teeth; it was only a matter of time before they caught us. I knew being a pessimist wasn't going to help, but they always seemed to be one step ahead of us. I mean, come on, what chance have four teenager, even if they have extra powers, got against loads of fully trained adults. Being a necromancer won't exactly stop people with guns chasing after me. With the others it was a totally different story. Simon and Tori could use a knock back spell to throw back their attacker and Derek – Derek could hurt them more than I could probably imagine, and that was only if they managed to get close enough to hurt him.

But now we were at the safe house that would definitely make a difference. Andrew had said this was a place for ex-Edison Group employees to seek shelter. I guess that extended to us – ex- Edison Group experiments. We'd arrived here about two hours ago. Tori had run upstairs to take a shower and I hadn't seen her since, she'd probably gone to sleep. Derek had Andrew had gone into the basement together to talk. Derek must've wanted to know about his transformations. I guess he wanted to know if it was regular to have false starts. Simon had grabbed hold of my wrist and we searched for a kitchen, when we were there he had sat me down at the table, rooted for tea bags and made us too steaming mugs of tea. I'd sat there wetting my lips with the hot, sweet liquid. Simon had tried in vain to start conversation, but I didn't feel like talking, even though I was drinking my throat felt dry, as if someone had run sandpaper down it. Simon had held my hand in the car on the way here. Did that mean something? Or was he just trying to comfort me? I didn't know how either option made me feel.

"Chloe!" I heard Tori shout from the back door. She was dressed a clean pair of pyjamas and a fluffy dressing gown but she had her trainers on her feet. "Dinner's ready." She said. I disentangled myself from the bench and walked towards her.

"Where did you get the clothes?" I asked, they looked warm and comfy.

"There are loads of clothes in the drawers upstairs. Andrew told me to make myself at home and to wear whatever I wanted." Tori beamed happily, a rare sight, it was different to her normal snide grin. The smell of tomatoes assaulted my nostrils and I realised how hungry I was. Derek and I hadn't eaten a proper meal for ages and it would be nice to eat something hot.

In the kitchen, Simon and Derek were already at the table digging into two large plates of spaghetti bolognese. Their hair was wet, everyone but me must have already showered. Simon patted the chair next to him and I sat down. Derek looked up just as I sat down beside Simon. There was an empty chair next to him as well. Tori sat beside me. The seat next to Derek staying empty. Our gaze's locked. I broke my eyes way from his and stared at my plate my cheeks turning pink, why was I embarrassed? All I was doing was sitting in a chair beside Simon. Thankfully Andrew chose this moment to come over and take the spare seat; I picked up my fork and began to eat. I spent the meal eating in silence, and as usual Derek did too. Andrew and Simon chatting easily, even Tori made an input every few minutes; I just didn't feel like talking. I was too wrapped up in my own thoughts about earlier.

How come I was the only one to see Aunt Lauren? She was there, I know she was. She'd said she'd seen the error of her ways and had finished with the Edison Group. I know she'd only wanted to help by putting me forward for the Genesis project, but I still found it hard to forget the fact that she'd betrayed me and brought me to the research centre. When I was done with my dinner I stood up and put my plate in the sink, I scrubbed it, lost in my thoughts. I was only vaguely aware of Derek nudging me on the shoulder.

"Chloe, I think you're plate's clean." I looked down. It was spotless. Derek handed me this towel to dry it.

"Uh-thanks." I said snapping out of my revere. Drying the plate quickly and putting it back in its place on the table. Derek watched me for a minute, staring at me intently. "What?" I snapped. I was in no mood to be scrutinised. Over at the table Simon and Tori were deep in conversation, she'd moved into my seat. When they caught me looking over at them, they both stopped speaking. Simon looked up at me his eyes sad, Tori looked at me with pity wrote all across her face.

"Do you want me to show you where the towels and stuff are?" Tori said gesturing for me to follow her. What the hell! Had Tori had a lobotomy since yesterday – she was acting like a nice person! "It's up here," she said walking up an old wooden stairs that creaked with every step. She walked to a small closet and pulled out a fluffy green towel handing it to me. "You can sleep in this room if you like, or you can share with me, it doesn't really matter." Woah! Major personality shift. Had the Edison Group caught her this morning and switched her brain with someone else's.

"It's okay Tori, I'll be fine, I'm a big girl now." I said.

"Well there's clothes in the drawers," she pulled them open. Sure enough inside was a selection of girls clothes. "I was just checking they were girl's stuff not boys." I stood in the middle of the room. Tori hung back at the door, she looked unsure if she should leave or not.

"Spit it out Tori." I said crossly.

"Nothing to spit out. Showers two doors down and across the hall from you." She said giving me one last sad look before closing the door behind her. What was up with her, I wondered. She was treating me like a person who'd just found out I'd a life threatening illness. I grabbed a dressing gown, pjs and clean underwear before heading to the bathroom.

When I was inside I locked the door and stripped off. The shower was worm and I felt my muscles relax under the flow of the hot water. The water ran out with bits of black, I guess I really hadn't washed it out properly at all. I got dressed and wiped the steam from the mirror. The black in my hair still looked bad but it wasn't was lank and dead looking as before, thank God. There was a bang on the door. I jumped, startled.

"Chloe I need to talk to you." It was Derek.

"One second." I answered picking my clothes up from the floor. I unlocked the door and opened it. Derek was standing there. His hand poised to knock again. "I just want to throw my stuff in the room." I threw my clothes on the floor beside the door and pulled on my trainers. When I turned around Derek was running a hand through his hair. He looked nervous, that was a first.

"Will you come for a walk outside with me?" He asked. I nodded my head; he probably wanted to tell me about what Andrew had told him. We walked down the stairs in silence. The steps creaked loudly as we walked down them, Simon was sitting on the counter in the kitchen and he nodded to us, he looked much more serious than he normally did.

We walked out the back door and Derek headed down the wide path that went down. The garden was huge and had a small gate at the end. We walked in silence to the gate. There was a wood on the other side of the gate and we walked slowly into it. The woods felt eerie and claustrophobic compared to the large spacious garden we had just left. The trees block out the light of the moon only allowing slivers of light to pass through the leaves. Derek stopped suddenly and turned around to face me.

"Chloe, I need to talk to you about something. Something I overheard earlier. We weren't sure if we should tell you…" Derek started.

"What do you mean we?" I asked folding my arms across my chest.

"Simon, Andrew, Tori and I," he continued. "You see, the thing is, when I was looking for Tori I heard the Edison Group talking. They said –," He paused for a second taking a deep breath as if to calm himself. "They said that your Aunt, was dead." He stopped.

I didn't breath. No, I though. No! She wasn't dead! I'd seen her in the forest! She must have followed the Edison Group to Andrew's house and had ran into the wood near there when she had seen me coming to tell me what to do.

"B-but I s-saw her!" I groaned.

"Chloe you're a necromancer. If she was a ghost of course you saw her." Derek explained reaching out for my arm. I jerked it back and glared at him. A strange look passed through his green eyes but I didn't dwell on it. Derek was lying to me. I didn't know why – but I knew I didn't believe him. He had to be lying. Aunt Lauren wasn't dead- she just couldn't be! Why Derek would lie I didn't know, but I sure as hell planned to figure out.

"You're lying!" I screamed at him and turned running back towards the gate. Derek lurched after me, grabbing my fore arm.

"Chloe, I'm not lying." His face was serious. I spun around to face him and fixed my most murderous glare on him.

"Why should I believe you? You've lied to me before! Don't deny it! Why should I trust you? You probably think this is the easiest option to stop me from doing anything stupid to try and check is she okay, and to stop me from trying to find out if the Edison Group haven't caught her and locked her up!" I tried to wrench my arm free of his grasp, but of course I couldn't. Derek reached down and put his free hand on my shoulder and lightly shook it.

"You have to believe me Chloe. I'm serious." That's when I snapped I pulled my fist back and punched him in the jaw, hard. Well as hard as I could. Then I sat down on the ground and cried. I knew he was right. Aunt Lauren was dead. Why would the Edison Group have let her live if they killed Liz? They had no mercy. They were like a dangerous New York gang. Blood in, blood out. Derek knelt down next to me and tentatively reached out his hand and covered mine with it.

"I'm sorry, Chloe. I didn't want to be the one to tell you but I guess it is only fair considering I'm the one who heard it. Simon said he'd tell you if you wanted. I'm sorry, I should have let him tell you, he'd probably have handled it better…"

"Derek," I cut him off, "It's fine. I believe you, sorry about hitting you." I looked up at him and gave him a watery weak smile. "Thanks for telling me." I bent my head and let the sadness wash over me.

Finally the tears stopped, I don't know how long I stayed there, crying quietly but Derek stayed with me the whole time, holding my hand silently.

**There you go! That's the first chapter in my story about what I think will happen in _The Reckoning_, the third book in the _Darkest Powers Trilogy_. I hope you like it. I'm just going to start the next chapter now. Also I was wondering, if anyone has read the _Otherworld Series_, what is the protocol about mates in it? I know the Twilight version and the L.J. Smith Nightworld version but am curious about Kelley Armstrong's version. Please leave a comment or if you have any suggestions!**


	2. Chapter 2

I dreamt I was in a storm, the lightening crashing right over my head. I was in an empty field, rain poured down my face. I was alone, the lightening sparked again, this time a foot in front of me. I tried to run but my feet were being held down by heavy weights. The lightening moved in slow motion hitting my body…

"Get up." My eyes snapped open and I groaned sitting up in bed wearily opening my eyes. Tori was flicking the light switch on and off with her arms folded across her chest. That would explain the lightening dream. "You have five minutes to get your butt downstairs. We're going to the mall then, we've got to get food, there's hardly any here and also we need to get new clothes and shoes and stuff." She gestured down to her nearly destroyed trainers.

"I thought you said that we could use the stuff here?" I asked pushing back the duvet and swinging my legs out of the bed.

"I said that last night when we _needed_ them but they actually belong to other people." She stated with an expression that screamed obvious on her face. Gone was the nice sympathetic Tori of last night. She was done feeling sorry for me; her own mother was trying to capture her and do God only knows what to her; I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself and pull myself together again.

"Okay, I'll be down in a minute, alright?" Tori sighed as if this would have do. Well tough look girl, I thought, I'll be down when I'm down.  
I got ready as quick as I could (no reason to purposefully upset Tori she had been nice last night) now that I'd realised these were other people's clothes I felt kind of mean wearing them. How hadn't I put two and two together last night and realised they weren't just there for my personal use? Did that mean that other people normally lived here?

I pulled on a pair of jeans a size too big, but luckily there'd been a belt on the pair of jeans I'd been wearing yesterday so I yanked it off them and fastened it around by waist. I found a long sleeved t-shirt, tugging it on over my head I pulled my necklace out from under it so I could look at it.  
It had turned decidedly blue. I stared at it for a minute remembering Dad getting it for me from the hospital. He must've been so worried about me. I guess I would have been worried too if my daughter had ran screaming down the corridor at her school claiming she could see the ghost of a dead school caretaker. Did he know about Aunt Lauren? Who'd tell him? I decided I would call him later running a brush roughly through my hair before walking downstairs.

"Where are Derek and Simon?" I asked Tori and Andrew who were sitting at the table, Andrew was wearily sitting at the table throwing back his coffee as if his life depended on it.

"Waiting in the car already for us." Tori said thrusting a granola bar into my chest along with a juice box. "You can eat in the car, if I don't get a toothbrush in the next hour I think all my teeth will fall out." I ran my tongue across my own teeth, they were gritty. Nice.  
Outside the sun was shining brightly but the wind was cold and the sky was such a pale blue it almost looked grey. I hugged my top around me tighter. I could see Simon and Derek in the Andrew's car, they were talking. As we got closer to the car I could see that Simon's cheeks were flushed and he was waving his hands, gesturing wildly about something, where as Derek was shaking his head while fiddling with the dial on the radio. Opening the door in the back I sat in the middle seat and Tori perched on the seat beside me.

"Morning," I said my mouth full of granola. No one answered. Derek flicked from station to station skipping past all the news and talk shows before settling on the first music channel that came on, unfortunately it happened to be a techno show. He turned it up loud, almost too loud.  
Simon was breathing deeply his hands balled into fists. What had they been arguing about, I thought to myself. The drive was spent in silence only broken by the random electronic beeping coming over the airwaves and into the car. When we'd arrived at the mall, Andrew opened his wallet and handed us each fifty dollars.

"Meet back here in an hour, is that okay?" We all nodded. Walking towards the entrance the atmosphere was tense. Simon and Derek were walking either side of me again while Tori was a few feet ahead obviously eager to be off. Once we were inside Tori raced off for the nearest store while Simon, Derek and I stayed huddled in a little clump together. It would've been almost normal if Simon hadn't been shooting daggers at Derek.

"I'm clearly missing something here; does anyone want to tell me what's going on?" I asked looking from Derek to Simon. There was something seriously up with the pair of them.

"Why don't you tell her Derek?" asked Simon through gritted teeth.  
"Simon just leave it." Derek said his expression firm. "It doesn't matter-"

"You promised me!" Simon said sounding more upset than angry now, "You promised me you wouldn't!" Derek looked pleadingly at Simon before Simon stormed away from Derek and me leaving the two of us alone in the middle of the crowded mall.

"What was all that about?" I asked looking up at Derek; he looked a little paler than usual as he stared after Simon's retreating back. I repeated my question, a little louder this time.

"Ugh, nothing." Derek answered looking down at me. "Simon's just overreacting like usual."

"Derek," I said placing my hands on my hips and pulling my shoulders back doing my best to look intimidating, "Tell me."

"Fine," Derek snarled. "I told him that I think I should go away for a while, y'know that I should split up from the rest of you." My jaw dropped slightly but I snapped it back into place straight away.

"Derek." I said fixing him with my most steely stare. "Don't even think about it! What good do you think that would do?" I asked hitting him on the arm. "Why would you think that's a good idea?" I asked exasperated.

"Chloe I'm dangerous! I can hurt people! Look what happened with Liam! The only reason they came near us was because the smelt me and now that we got away Liam is only going to come after us again. He knows our scent… but he'll leave you if he can't find you! You're not a danger to him - he wants me, you heard his plan." Derek said his green eyes vivid and flashing.

"Derek, I understand where you're coming from but it won't help the situation at all! What difference will it _really_ make? Simon would just go after you! Besides…" I trailed off deciding how to word this next bit right, "I wouldn't let you leave or if you had - I would've just gone with you. We managed okay the last time right - we could just as easily do it again!" Derek opened his mouth as if to say something and then closed it again.

"Fine. You and Simon win." he sounded exasperated and defeated. "We need to hurry up and get stuff so we can meet Andrew back at the car." he said checking his watch.

"I'm watching you Derek." I said, letting him know he wasn't going skipping out on the rest of us, even if it was for a very moral reason, without me coming with him. The more I thought about it the more my mind agreed that the two of us going off together so the others weren't in danger was probably for the best. Derek was wanted by one very pissed werewolf and I had a reward for $500,000 dollars on my head. The black dye didn't disguise me that much and the cops had probably factored in the fact that my 'kidnappers' had probably insisted I dye my hair and black was probably as different from my normal hair color as I could get.

"You sound like a crap Mafia boss," Derek snorted. I scowled back at him as we walked towards Sears.

***

When we arrived back at the house there was a black SUV parked in the drive.

"That must be Owen and Caroline." Andrew said as we got out of the car, "I phoned them last night to tell him we were had arrived, needless to say they were shocked but they drove straight here." Owen and Caroline? Were they supernatural too? Was one of them a necromancer like me? Or a werewolves like Derek? If they were everything would be so much easier. Maybe this Caroline person was a kick-ass necromancer… I could just imagine her now, she'd be extremely glamorous wearing tight jeans and a leather jacket, her hair would be long and shiny and –

"Andrew!" A loud voice came from the sitting room as soon as we opened the door, a man with a brown crew cut and bright blue eyes came forward and grabbed Andrew's hand shaking it roughly.

"Owen," Andrew greeted somberly, Owen appeared to be in his late twenties or very early thirties. He was slightly built and was only about 5'7".

"This must be the gang!" Owen gestured to us smilingly, he reminded me of the Breckin Meyer the guy who played Jon in the Garfield movie, he was all smiles and bouncy.

"Yes, yes it is. This is Tori, Simon, Chloe and Derek." Said Andrew waving to each of us in turn. "Where's Caroline?" asked Andrew.

"I'm here," came a voice from the kitchen, a small woman came out. Her hair was mouse brown and it matched her eyes which could only be described as dull. She was short and petite, not quite the Caroline I had imagined.

"How are you Caroline? It's been a long time." Andrew said smiling fondly at her. She gave a weak smile back at him.

"Yes." Caroline didn't seem a woman of many words. "I've just finished boiling the kettle for tea and coffee. We all trooped in behind her. Once we were all settled down at the table, it was quite a tight squeeze with three adults and four teenagers, not to mention one of us was the size of a body builder.

"Sooo," said Owen, "Why don't you lot tell us a bit about yourselves," I exchanged a quick glance with Derek, our eyes met and he shrugged. We didn't exactly know a lot about these people except that they were friends of Andrew's.

"Well I'm a sorcerer, Tori's a witch, Chloe's a necromancer and Derek here's a werewolf." Said Simon beginning to fall into easy chatter, apparently he had no problem sharing.

"Cool." Said Owen his eyes lighting up. "I'm a sorcerer too and Caroline's a necro too." Said Owen as if these were their everyday jobs, it was like he'd said teacher and nurse. But then again if you've been born into the supernatural world community all of these things would've been so much easier to accept.

But if this Caroline person was a necromancer, then maybe she could help me. I looked over at her. Her gaze was burning into mine with such intensity that I had to look away. I felt a light kick on my ankle; I looked over in the direction of its sender, Derek. Apparently he too had noticed the look I'd just received from Caroline.

"I'm tired from the drive, I think I'll go upstairs and have a quick lie down," said Caroline. Owen jumped up to follow her.

"I think I might join you," said Owen holding back a yawn. "We drove through the night last night, didn't we babe," Owen threw an arm over Caroline's shoulder and waved to us as the pair headed upstairs. I wouldn't have put them down as a couple; he seemed like such a glass half full person and Caroline the opposite.

I thought about Caroline while I finished my tea, would I end up like her in a few years time? Is that the sort of effect that raising the dead has on a person?

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed this chapter, chapter three will probably be up soon. Leave me a comment to let me know what you think! Also thanks to _imissbuffy_ who answered my question on mates. XD**


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers.**

"Hey," Simon said as he sat down beside me on my bed. I'd decided to come up here after dinner to go for a 'nap'. To be honest I just needed sometime to think on my own.

"Hey." I answered. "Where's everyone?" I asked craning my neck around to see if Derek had followed Simon in, silently as usual.

"Tori and Owen are talking outside; Andrew is showing Caroline something in the study and Derek went for a run about a half an hour ago."

"Derek told me why you and him were fighting in the mall." I stated, I didn't really know where to proceed from here, the last thing we needed to do was to start fighting among ourselves.

"Yeah." It seemed like Simon was just as uneager to discuss the topic as I was. "I'm not going to apologize to him, he shouldn't have even have thought about abandoning us –"

"I don't think Derek thought of it as abandoning. He has it in his head that he's too dangerous to us. He's scared that Liam and Ramon will catch his scent and trace it to here." I said, effectively cutting Simon off. Simon looked thoughtful for a second.

"That does seem like something he'd think. But it still doesn't change the fact that he was planning to leave. What if something had happened to him? He could've been attacked by those rogue flesh-eating wolves? Then what would I do?" Simon ran a hand through his hair, he looked really upset.

Instinctively I leaned over and gave him what was meant to be a quick reassuring, a friend-to-friend hug, but Simon wrapped his arm around my back and held me to him. I felt my face redden, glad he couldn't see it. The hug was nice but I didn't relax. It just didn't feel right. Something was off, but I didn't know what. It wasn't liked how I would've imagined hugging him would be, all heart pounding and breath catching. I liked Simon, why wouldn't I? He was nice, funny, good-looking, and smart and he really seemed to like me.

"Chloe, could we ta-" A voice said as he pushed open the door. I pulled back from Simon as quickly as though he was on fire. It was Owen.

"Hey." said Simon somewhat sheepishly as though he had been caught stealing a cookie from a jar. He stood up and cleared his throat. "Did you say you wanted to talk to Chloe?" He said.

"Yeah, well Caroline does, but she has a bit of a headache so she sent me down to ask could Chloe come to our room."

"Sure," I said, standing up too.

"Well, I'll see you later, I think I might go outside and see if Derek's back from his run yet." Simon said smiling shyly at me. I smiled back, glad that he and Derek would hopefully have made things up by the morning.

"Sooo, you and Simon, yeah?" said Owen, raising an eyebrow and smiling cheekily once Simon had left the room and we heard the stairs creak under him. I turned the colour of a tomato for the second time in the space of about two minutes.

"N-no. W-we're j-just friends." I said my annoying nervous stutter getting in the way as often happened in situations like this making me appear even guiltier. Owen smirked a knowing smile.

"Sure Chloe, whatever you say." He said sceptically. I followed him out of the room.

"What does Caroline want to talk to me about?" I asked, when we'd met her earlier I'd got a strange feeling from her. It reminded me of the corpse of the homeless man. I reached for my necklace which was hanging around my neck the jewel resting under my shirt. I pulled it out and looked at it. It had a strange tint to it. It seemed to be turning a more turquoise shade of blue.

"She'll tell you herself when you go in." Owen must have noticed my unease and added, "Caroline's nice. It's just that she's been threw a lot and it's had an effect on her." We paused outside a door. He put a hand on my shoulder reassuringly and gave it a gentle squeeze. "I'll see you later; I'll go down and get all the dirty details from Simon about you're sordid relationship." I scowled at him and he laughed. I knocked on the door before opening it. Caroline was inside looking into the mirror. Her reflection nodded to me.

"Hello." She said turning around to face me. "We didn't get to talk much earlier, I was tired." I nodded and swallowed, should I reach out and offer her my hand to shake? She sat down on the edge of her bed and looked up at me; her eyes looked tired and weary as if they had seen everything and a bit more. If all the events ever since I had gotten to Lyle House were a movie, I would have cast Caroline as the old woman who had lived a long and difficult life. But, I reminded myself, it wasn't a film. Caroline was in her late twenties, what had she seen or done that made her what looked like an empty shell of a person.

"Yeah, I'm Chloe." I said, well what else could I say?

"I know. Andrew asked us here because he wanted us to talk to you. He wanted us to help all of you with whatever you were going through. I don't know if I can do that." She stared at her hands. "Chloe, being a necromancer is not something you can really teach; it's more about feeling and experience. It helps to know back round information but really when it comes down to it, it doesn't help that much. Do you see this?" She pulled up the sleeve of her shirt to show her left forearm. A long white scar ran from elbow to wrist.

"I got this four years ago. I was out in the city and the spirit of an angry demi-demon was following me, refusing to leave me alone, I ran and ran and it wouldn't stop. Some guys saw me talking to myself on as I ran and they grabbed me. Called me crazy. One of them pulled a knife and..." she trailed of running her fingers over the scar. "That's how I met Owen." She continued. "He was walking past when he saw it happen, he ran over and used a knock back spell, I knew what he was straight away and I told him what I was and what had happened. I believe some things in life are meant to happen and I meeting Owen was one." I saw how Caroline's expression changed as she talked about Owen. I could see how much he meant to her. "So, how did you find out you were a necromancer?" Caroline asked, her eyes focusing back on me again, coming back from the past.

"I saw a ghost of a dead janitor at school and I freaked out, he was burned and he was angry, he chased me through the corridor and I ran screaming. I was taken to the hospital and from there I was sent to Lyle House. When I was there I heard a ghost trying to talk to me in the basement telling me to go into the crawlspace. Derek suspected what I was and told me." I pause for a second and looked at Caroline to gauge her reaction to the story so far, her face was perfectly blank. "I eventually got into the crawlspace and couldn't find anything, then Tori told me she'd found something down there before so she told me to come down. Simon and Rae had gone swimming for the evening so it was just Tori, Derek, one of the nurses and me there. When we were in there, Tori hit me on the head with a brick and tied me up. She was trying to scare me to get back at me for…" I trailed off, needn't get into that story right now. Caroline's eyebrows were raised.

"As in the Tori downstairs now?" I nodded before continuing on.

"Well, when I woke up I was freaked and I accidentally sent too souls back to their bodies. The bodies clawed their way up out of the earth and then Derek heard me screaming and came down. He got me to calm down and then I sent them back to their bodies." I finished.

"You mean you were able to raise the dead?" Caroline sound, her tone impressed yet slightly fearful.

"Yeah." I said.

"I've never seen someone so young be able to do that. I wonder… no. Has it happened since?" I told her about the bats and the homeless man. She sighed heavily.

"You raised them in your sleep?" My heart leapt to my mouth, the words uncontrollable powers echoed in my mind. Caroline lowered her tone before continuing, "Chloe I'm sorry that you have to go through all this. I know how hard it is. It's just I've never seen or heard of someone raising spirits unconsciously. For me there was always a choice when it came to that element, unlike with ghosts. It requires a substantial amount of energy. Did you find yourself particularly tired after it happened?" I shook my head, and then nodded before shaking it again.

"We were on the run, I don't know. We had to work quickly at Lyle House to rebury the bodies so there was no time to be tired and with the others we were sleeping rough, I hadn't had much sleep anyway." I answered.

"An adrenaline rush, not uncommon. How have you been sleeping since it's happened?" She asked her eyes concerned.

"Not well, I've been scared that I'll raise something in my sleep and won't know about it until it's too late." I thought back to what the demi-demon at the Edison Group facility.

"You don't need to be scared. I'm here now if anything happens. I'll ask Andrew if there's a graveyard nearby, I doubt that there is unless it's a very old one. This area is very quiet. This is the only house for miles." Caroline stood up brushing imaginary creases out of her jeans. "I think I might go for a walk with Owen now, there are things the two of us need to discuss." I stood up as well and walked out of the room in front of her. When we left the room, Caroline extracted a long metal key from her pocket and locked the door. "Well talk again tomorrow Chloe." Try to get some proper sleep tonight." She gave me a wan smile before walking downstairs.

"So, how did it go?" I jumped, I hadn't expected anyone to be there. It was Tori, she had stuck her head out her door and was looking at me.

"Okay." I said scuffing my shoe against the wooden floor.

"She wasn't what you expected, huh?" Tori asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah," I answered, "she wasn't."

**Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far, our internet connection broke and has been out of commission for the past while but I had this written already. Next chapter is almost ready! I know Derek wasn't in this chapter but never fear he will have returned by the next one! XD**


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers**

I was sitting in the library reading a book when Derek came in, I looking up, I mumbled "Hey." He sat down on the faded leather couch across from me.

"So," he said, "Did you talk to Caroline yet?" I sighed; Derek was never one to side-step an issue.

"Yeah, I did." I said folding down the corner of my book and balancing it on the edge of the couch. I hadn't really decided whether I wanted to tell anyone about what Caroline and I had talked about, it seemed private, even though she hadn't forbidden me to tell anyone.

"And?" Derek prodded, looking at me expectantly. When I didn't answer straight away he added hastily, "I mean, of course you don't have to tell me if you don't want to or anything." Derek's cheeks were red and he made as if to stand up.

"No, no! I don't mind." At least this way I would have someone to discuss it all with. Derek sat down again scratching him forearm absently as I began to talk.

"Apparently necromancy isn't something you can teach exactly; it's more of a feeling thing." Derek raised an eyebrow but didn't comment. "She said she can't really show me much. I told her about everything that happened at Lyle house; she seemed pretty freaked that I'd actually managed to raise people, y'know, being my age and all."

"Well, maybe she doesn't know many other necromancers." Derek said, his brow was furrowed, I noticed his cheeks were still a bit red.

"You okay?" I peered at him closely, "Your cheeks are kind of flushed; do you think you're changing again?" I asked reaching over to grab his hand which had been resting on his knee cap. It was burning hot.

"I'm fine." Derek said jerking his knee away, his tone snappy. I pulled back my hand, hurt. I'd only been trying to help.

"Derek, you know what happened the first time you ignored the signs." I chided.

"I know," he said his voice softer this time as he buried his face in his hands leaning back in his chair. "It feels different this time though, before, once it started, the transformation pretty much happened within twenty four hours, last time it only took a couple. I've been feeling crap since dinner last night."

"Did you tell Andrew?" I asked, edging towards the edge of my seat. He shook his head. "So, what do you want to do? Do you want to lie down? I could get you some Tylenol or something."

"No, I'll be fine. I think I might just go for a run or something." Derek said standing up slowly as if it caused him great pain to do so before making his way towards the door. I bounced out of my seat and followed him.

"You went for a run earlier and if you're feeling sick you probably shouldn't, and it's getting dark!" I said grabbing his arm just below the elbow in a feeble attempt to stop him. Derek snorted.

"What difference does the dark make to me? I can see just as well." Well, I thought, he had me there.

"Well, okay, whatever." He raised an eyebrow before saying that he'd se me later before heading out the door. He was a big boy; he could do whatever he wanted.

Sitting back down, I flicked open my book before attempting to continue reading. After I read the same line three times, as cliché as it sounds, I realised I was getting nowhere. I knew it was a totally unreasonable worry, but I was nervous about Derek being out on his own when I wasn't there with him, not that I'd be a big help protection wise. But he wasn't feeling well, he could be about to change. Remembering the pain he'd been in the other times I decided that I couldn't just sit there worrying about him any longer.

Running up the stairs two at a time, I grabbed my coat from my room before literally bumping into Tori on the landing.

"Watch it!" she said rubbing her forehead which my head had collided with, I sidestepped around her, massaging my own sore head, I could feel a lump forming already, great. "Where are you going?" she asked curiously as I attempted to make my way down the stairs but she grabbed the sleeve of my jacket. "You know we're not meant to leave the house after dark." She was right, it was practically the only rule Andrew had give us. But desperate times called for desperate measures.

"I'm just going outside to get some air, I feel kind of -" I trailed off, hoping she wouldn't want to no anymore details, I tried to make my expression queasy and wrapped the arm she wasn't holding around my stomach. Tori grimaced.

"Please, if you start throwing your guts up, call Simon or Derek not me. I'm not interested in holding back your hair while you hang your head over the toilet bowl." I nodded, trying again to pull out of her grasp, she loosened her grip and I made it to the bottom of the stairs. "Chloe," she said, I turned around, "I know you're not sick, but if you're not back in an hour, I'll tell Andrew you're gone." She whispered before glancing around to make sure no one had heard. Again I nodded to show I understood. Tori turned and walked out of my line of vision.

Outside the air was cold and the wind biting. I pulled my coat collar up further and ran down the small path that led to the wood. The lock on the small gate was rusted and I couldn't open it. I climbed over it and called Derek's name, but there was no answer. The wood was silent. I walked further into the wood, the trees were growing denser around me blocking out the little light the half moon was giving. A branch cracked. I hadn't really been scared of the dark growing up except when I was a little kid but I still jumped.

"W-who's there?" I asked, trying to make my voice steady and confident but failing miserably.

"It's only me." Derek, I relaxed and looked at him. He obviously hadn't intended on going for a run at all, he was still dressed in the jeans and hoodie I'd seen him wear in the library, but his forehead was covered in a thick sheen of sweat. "Why did you come after me?" he asked, his tone slightly angry, he didn't move from the spot he had appeared from.

"I was worried about you." I said, taking a step towards him, bridging the gap between us.

"Chloe, I think I might be changing. Completely. It's not safe for you to be here, it's not safe for anyone, and you should go back in the house. But could you do me a favour though?" Nervously he continued, "Don't tell Simon or Andrew, they'll worry and try and come out." Same old self-sacrificing Derek. I shook my head.

"Derek I'm not going anywhere okay? You followed me down to the crawl-space back at Lyle house and helped me. It's my turn to pay you back." I said taking another step forward.

"That was different though," I raised and eyebrow, "You'd be attacked; besides you've stayed with me before."

"Exactly," I said, there was less then two feet between us and I could see the muscles bunching and loosening beneath his skin, "It's nothing I haven't seen before, I'll be fine." I reached my hand out to grab hold of his arm. He jerked back, pulling his arm back out of my reach.

"No!" His voice was harsh and his tone cutting, "That _was_ different, I just-I just know that this time it's for real, and when it is I don't know what's going to happen, we don't know what they've done to us, to me. The Edison group have all agreed on the fact that I'm not safe. They know more about this then us, on this point I think I'm going to have to agree with them. Go back to the house Chloe." He said pointedly before turning on his heel and heading even further into the wood.

"No," I said running to catch up to his long, powerful strides. He stopped again when I reached him. My heart was in my mouth, I didn't want him to have to do this alone. Derek sat down on the ground and groaned, I noticed the dark hairs already starting to make their way to the surface. I squatted down beside him and he turned his face towards mine. His green eyes held a fear I had never seen so clearly in them before.

"I'm not leaving you." I whispered rubbing my hand along his arm. "You should probably take off your hoodie and stuff, you don't want to rip them," I said remembering the last time. My cheeks grew hot as I he pulled his hoodie and t-shirt off over his head, exposing his muscular chest. I avoided his gaze; his chest had hardly any blemishes on it compared to last time I'd seen it. While Derek unbuckled his belt and unfastened the button on his jeans I folded the clothes he had already discarded.

Derek groaned and drew a large breath; I could only imagine the pain he must be in. Yanking off his shoes the lay them beside him and shimmied out of his jeans, leaving him in just his underwear.

I shivered as I sat down on the ground beside him, the night chill had seeped in through my coat and I was now freezing compared to Derek's open flame like skin.

"Put on my jumper." Derek said, he was on all fours, his hair partially covering his face.

"Thanks," I mumbled, grabbing it off the ground and yanking it over my head. It smelled familiar and comfortingly like Derek. I reached out a hand and placed it on his shoulder rubbing it as he started to vomit violently, his whole body shaking. His back arched and I felt so helpless as I was forced to watch his body try and become something that it was not. "You're doing fine; this will be the last time you have to go through with this." I whispered rubbing his shoulder with one hand while squeezing one of his large hands with my own, covering his lengthening nails and morphing fingers.

"Chloe," Derek said, his voice was almost unrecognisable, raspy and low, "You can run whenever you like." He turned to look up at me. His face was most definitely not human anymore, but the familiar green orbs that were his eyes looked up at me.

"Don't count on it." I said. I reached forward and pushed his hair out of his face before his back snapped up again, jerking his face out of my view. The hair that was now covering him had long since stopped receding and his back once again arched painfully. The snapping of bones filled the air and I winced, wishing I could help him in more of a practical way as opposed to just whispering words of encouragement.

Suddenly a threshold was crossed, it's hard to describe but suddenly Derek was more animal than human. I closed my eyes tight, suddenly slightly unsure if I wanted to see this finish, but I stayed rubbing his back; the fur was surprisingly soft underneath my hand. Derek's moans finally subsided and I opened my eyes slowly, in front of me was a wolf.

**I hope I was able to do justice to the transformation scene as it was one of my favourites from both of the books, let me know what you think. Also I've just started working on a new story which is going to be a series of one-shots or drabbles. Would anyone be interested in reading that sort of thing?**

**Sorry it's taken me so long to update, been really busy with work, part-time jobs suck! Also my brother keeps reading over my shoulder and laughing at me, definitely not with me! Please leave a review; I really want to know what everybody thinks. Jennifer XD**


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers.**

"Derek," I whispered, the wolf looked up at me, its eyes were a deep emerald green and its fur coal black. I tentatively reached out a hand and put it on the wolf's neck rubbing it. The wolf didn't break eye contact and after a second nuzzled my leg with its nose. I grinned at him. "You did it." The wolf pricked its ears as though it heard something, it looked around the small clearing we were in then back at me. "Derek, what is it? Is someone coming?" I said fearfully. The wolf looked at me and then ran off, out of the clearing. What! Where was he going? I internally screamed. "Derek!" I called his name and attempted to get up from where I'd been kneeling in the earth.

"Chloe?" I heard a voice say and I jumped. It was Simon. "You okay? I was looking for you. Tori said she hadn't seen you but she said she'd heard someone go outside. What are you doing out here on your own." He asked extending a hand to help me up from where I'd been crouched in the dirt.

"I-I just w-wanted to go for a w-walk." I said gently nudging the small pile of Derek's clothes under a near by bush with my shoe so Simon wouldn't see them.

"I'd have come with you if you'd wanted." Simon said with a smile. His brow furrowed. "Why are you wearing Derek's jumper Chloe?" he asked, plucking the sleeve of the oversized jumper.

"Oh, am," I said my head spinning as I searched for a reasonable excuse as to why I was wearing his brother's clothes. "I hadn't planned on going for a walk, it's just I looked outside and it looked really nice." Nice? My head raged, it was freezing! "And I, ah, didn't want to go upstairs to grab a coat; this was near the back door, so I grabbed it." I laughed nervously, "Do you think he'll mind?" Simon waved it off. My teeth chattered and I wrapped my arm around myself.

"You're cold. Come on, let's go back inside." Simon said reaching for my hand. I pulled it back out of his reach, pretending to scratch my head.

"I'm not c-cold. I think I might just sit out here another while. You can go on back inside if you want, I'll be fine here." I said sitting down on a nearby rock hoping he'd take the hint and go back inside. He sat down beside me and wrapped his arm around me. I stiffened.

"Nah, I'd prefer to stay out here with you anyway." He flashed me another smile. "Besides, Andrew and Derek went to bed ages ago, Tori is the only one awake in the house and I don't really feel like talking to her." He said pulling up the hood on his jumper with his free arm to block the cold.

"She's not that bad." I said attempting to defend her. "She's been better the past few days." I said, thinking about earlier when she'd let me sneak outside on my own.

"Chloe, I ugh, want to talk to you about something." He was picking at a loose thread in his jeans, I tried to look at his face but he was avoiding my gaze. "It's been something I've wanted to ask you for a while now," I paled, knowing what he was going to ask, but not knowing my answer, "you see, well, the thing is…" Simon was cut off by the bark of a wolf and Derek, in wolf form, emerged from between two trees. Simon jumped up pulling me by the hand. He pushed me behind him. Picking up a stick off the ground he looked at the wolf.

"S-stay away." He said. I pushed past him. Standing in front of him effectively blocking the wolf from his view.

"It's just Derek." I said, smiling what I hope was reassuringly at him. Simon gently moved me aside and looked at the wolf.

"Derek?" Simon said disbelievingly as the wolf walked over to him sitting down in front of him. "It's really you? Man, that's so cool! You okay?" Simon said reaching over and rubbing the wolf's head, the wolf jerked away and threw Simon what could only be described as a dirty look. Simon laughed and tried to do it again, the wolf dodged his hand easily. "When we were younger Dad used always ruffle Derek's hair and it used to really piss him off, but he never let on to Dad. He didn't want to hurt his feelings." I smiled.

"I'll have to remember that." I said smirking at Derek. "How does he, am, change back?" I said. Remembering in the movies that the transformation back to human form looked just as painful as changing into a wolf.

"I've never seen it actually happen," said Simon stating the obvious, "But Dad said it's pretty much the reverse of what just happened." He said pointing at Derek. "You ready to change back bro?" Simon said. The wolf cocked his head to the side before nudging Simon's wrist. "Damn it." Simon said. "I need to check my levels. I forgot to do it earlier. I didn't bring my needles out." Simon's eyes darted from me to Derek.

"Go inside Simon, we'll be come inside in a few minutes." Simon looked unsure but nodded.

"Okay," he said as though it was all against his better judgement. "I guess you're pretty used to it by now. I'd probably just be getting in the way anyway." He waved and headed back up the path. Derek and I sat in silence for a few minutes.

"So," I said suddenly unsure about what to say, "Do you want me to get your clothes for you?" I crouched down and pulled his clothes that I had stashed under the bush out for him. They were pretty much okay but there was a few leaves and a bit of muck on them. I quickly dusted them off before setting them on the rock I'd recently vacated. "I'll turn around then, okay?" I said facing my back to him.

He groaned and I heard the noise of bones snapping and I resisted the urge to turn around and run over to him. After a few minutes I heard him cough.

"I'll, ah, just get dressed. One second." He said his voice low and gravelly.

"Yeah." I said pulling off the jumper he'd given me to wear earlier.

"What are you doing?" Derek said coming around to stand in front of me. He was wearing his jeans and shirt from earlier. I offered him the sweatshirt but he shook his head. "You can keep it." He said.

"Thanks." I said pulling it back on again quickly. He looked exhausted; there were dark circles under his eyes. "You alright?" I asked for what I felt was the millionth time that night as we walked back towards the gate.

"Fine. I'm a bit sore, nothing I won't get over by morning." He grabbed my arm for a second stopping me from moving. "Don't tell anyone about this for a while. I just want to figure some stuff out first." He said, his eyes burning into mine.

"Whatever you want." I said nodding. "But what about Simon? He knows too." I said as we continued on.

"I'll talk to Simon tonight." He said. The lock on the gate was jammed as it had been earlier. Derek reached over and gave it a small tug. It sprung open. I widened my eyes. It had been stiffly jammed when I'd tried to open it before. "Thanks for being there with me." Derek said his voice gruff and his eyes searching mine.

"It's okay." I answered not breaking his gaze. "I didn't mind." I said. We were standing only about a foot apart. Then the porch light flicked on. Damn it, I thought.

"Chloe, Derek? Is that you?" He spotted the too of us standing at the end of the garden. "Get in here now. You're not meant to be outside when it's dark!" We made our way up to him. Noticing the dark circles under Derek's eyes as we got closer to the house, he paled. "Derek d-did you?" He asked gesturing wildly with his hands. Derek nodded solemnly. "Are you okay?" he sounded frantic; I looked at Derek to see what he would say. Only to find him looking at me. I turned back towards Andrew who was doing the same.

"Am I o-okay?" I said confused. Why was Andrew asking me that? He should be checking Derek was okay. "I'm fine, why wouldn't I be." I said, looking from one to the other. Derek was staring at the ground shame-faced.

"Because it's not safe for anyone to be near a werewolf when they change for the first time. It is different for everyone, you could've killed her!" Andrew said glaring at Derek. "Derek, I thought you would've be responsible about this! Especially with the situation." Derek didn't meet his gaze and Andrew continued to shout. "What would you have done if you'd killed her? How do you think Simon would feel?" Simon? How did he come into it? "I can't believe you Derek, how could you be so selfish?" Andrew raged.

"Andrew-" I said trying to defend Derek. He brought a hand to silence me.

"Well Derek?" he said, his tone cutting. Derek opened his mouth but I cut across him.

"No," I said.

"Chloe, just be quiet for one second!" Andrew said without looking away from Derek.

"No," I said again. "This isn't Derek's fault, it's mine. I followed him out there. He tried to tell me to go back, I refused and he was too far gone to do anything once I refused." Andrew raised an eyebrow. "Really. It was fine though. Nothing strange happened."

"Andrew-" Derek started but Andrew cut him off.

"I'm going back to bed. You too go to bed too. You must be tired. We'll discuss this further in the morning. I presume just the pair of you know about this." Andrew said closing the porch door as we stepped inside, bolting it closed and locking it with a key he pulled from his dressing gown pocket.

"Simon knows too." Said Derek as I pulled off his jumper before handing it back to him. "He came down there after I'd changed." Andrew nodded running a hand through his greying hair.

"Okay, we'll tell the others in the morning, decided what to do." He said heading up the stairs. "Goodnight."

"What does he mean, decide what to do?" I asked Derek who shrugged his shoulders. Derek walked into the kitchen and I followed him. He poured himself a glass of water and grabbed a cereal bar from box on the counter.

"You want one?" I shook my head.

"I think I'm going to go to bed. Night." I said giving him a feeble wave before leaving the room. I walked up the stairs and it creaked loudly under me. I cursed quietly and continued going up. At the top of the stairs, I heard a voice.

"Hello little girl."

**Author's Note: Ooh! Cliffy! Ha ha! Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I really do appreciate all the feed back. I'm trying to get the updates for this story more regular so I'm aiming for once to twice a week. Say three times a fortnight? Maybe more. I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter and if everyone lets me know what they think that would be great. **

**Also, I interested in beta-ing a story, so if anyone's got one that they'd like me to take a look at, pm me. Okay?**

**And check out my other Darkest Powers story too, it's a series of one-shots from different character's points of view. Some are from the book, other's are missing scenes. The first three are up so review and let me know what other one shots you'd .**

**I've had a very busy day writing wise. I wrote this. Did final edits on third chapter in my one shots series and I wrote and on my Twilight story Hate and Love. I'm gonna go now. I want to start on Chapter four of The Darkest Powers One Shots! Jennifer  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers**

_Previously: "Hello Little Girl."_

I whirled around to find myself face to face with the homeless man. My heart sunk all the way down to my stomach. I recognised his matted shoulder length greasy grey hair and faded Buffalo Bruins sweatshirt. I jumped back as he advanced.

"Good to see you again sweetheart." He said smiling at me menacingly. One of his canine teeth was missing and the rest of his teeth were either yellow or chipped.

"H-how did y-you find me?" I whispered, scared of waking the others who were sleeping. He advanced further. I matched his steps backing further away from him; it was like some creepy dance.

"A person can find anyone if they know who to ask." My back hit the wall.

"W-who t-told you we were h-here?" I asked. His eyes widened and he smiled. "You mean you don't know?" I shook my head.

"Don't know what?" I asked my cheeks flushing as he laughed.

"God you kids really are something! Well, I'm not going to be the one to burst your happy little bubble sweetheart, I've come here for a different reason."

"How did you know we were here?" I repeated my voice raising. Who had betrayed us? The ghost pushed forward, his face less than a foot from mine.

"I'm not here to discuss that, don't you listen?" My throat was dry and I stopped myself from swallowing just in time. This was no time to show weakness. "You put me back into that rotting body, and I promised myself I'd come after you and make you regret it." My heart sank.

"It-it was an accident. Really it was. I was asleep!" I tried to explain, to make him see reason.

"Accident?" he gave a sarcastic laugh. "What do you mean an accident? There was no way somebody could do that by accident. You girl," he said pausing, "Are pure evil." I swallowed.

That hurt. I counted to three in my head to calm myself down, it would do no good to cry, and that wasn't going to change his mind. I was the boss here; I tried to reason with myself. I could control him, not the other way around. Besides, he couldn't hurt me; he wasn't physically in front of me.

The painting beside my head began to quiver. I'd noticed the painting earlier in the day. It was quite a nice one featuring a lake and some cows. The painting was wrenched from the wall.

"Didn't think I could do this, did you girlie?" he said with a sickly smile. He was telekinetic. Damn. I closed my eyes tight. I was going to need to concentrate if I wanted to do this. "Closing your eyes isn't going to help you much girlie." I heard a small crack as a piece of wood from the frame was plucked off and fired at me face. It pinched and I felt a drop of blood fall down my cheek. Come on Chloe I mentally chastised myself. You just have to concentrate. I opened my eyes just in time to see a glass vase that had been resting on a small table at the end of the hall rise up and fly towards. I flung my arms to cover my face but the glass pierced my arms. I yelped loudly.

"I can do this…" I muttered to myself.

"What's that?" the ghost cupped his ear as if straining to hear. "What is it can you do?" he laughed coldly. "You can't do anything." He looked up. I followed his gaze. A large glass chandelier was hanging from the ceiling above us. Another toothy smile. I heard the sound of the metal bolts being pulled from the ceiling.

"Chloe?" I heard Derek say from the kitchen. "Chloe?" he called again and I heard his feet thundering up the stairs. Simon's door opened at the same time.

"What's going on?" he asked his face alarmed, but I didn't have time to respond. The chandelier came crashing down and everything went black.

"Is she going to be okay?" I heard Simon ask.

"She'll be fine," A woman answered, it took me a second to place Caroline's voice. "She's coming to now." I opened my eyes slowly. Everything hurt.

"Chloe are you okay? How do you feel?" Simon asked rushing over to me and grabbing my hand. I looked around me; I was lying on the bed in my room. Simon was sitting at the edge of the bed and Caroline was standing beside me. Tori and Owen were beside the door looking worried. Only Derek and Andrew were missing.

"F-fine. How long was I out?" I asked trying to sit up but Caroline lightly pushed me back.

"About a half hour." She said checking her watch. I watched Owen choke back a yawn. Everyone was still in there pyjamas and looked wrecked.

"What happened to you?" Tori asked, her voice high pitched. "We came out after we heard the chandelier fall, but there was a vase and a painting on the floor as well. What happened?"

"A g-ghost came after me." I said I reached up and touched my face, there was a big cut running down my cheek.

"Came after you?" Simon said. "Who was it? Had you ever seen them before?" I nodded.

"It was the homeless guy from back in Buffalo." My hands searched down my arms they were covered in scratches too. I could feel a bump on my head, it had a pulse of its own and it hurt like hell.

"Andrew is gone to the store to get some bandages and drugs. He'll be back in a minute. Try and go to sleep. We'll talk later when you're feeling better." Caroline said hunting the others out.

"I-I think I'll stay here with Chloe until Andrew comes back. We probably shouldn't leave her on her own." Caroline nodded.

"Okay. Call us if you need us Simon." She said closing the door. I sat up.

"Chloe you should probably lie-" I waved him off.

"Where's Derek?" I asked Simon.

"Andrew took him with him. Andrew doesn't have a clue about medicine and stuff. Derek does." Simon looked puzzled for a second, possibly wondering over the urgency in my voice. "Why do you want to know?" I tried hard to hide my blush.

"Just wondering." I said hoping that it didn't come out too defensively. "How would Derek know about drugs and stuff?"

"He did a course one summer on stuff like that." Simon said, he was still holding my hand. The door opened and Derek walked in. He had a large plastic bag in his hand. He stopped when he saw how close we were sitting and that Simon was still clutching my hand. I ripped my hand out of Simon's and he yelped as my nails scraped his wrist.

"Ow!" He muttered. "You got the stuff Derek?" Simon asked looking over at his brother. I would've looked over too but I was embarrassed even though I had no reason to be.

"Um, yeah." Derek said his voice sounding even more gruff and deep than usual. He dumped the bag on the bed beside me and turned to leave.

"Where you going Derek? You're the resident expert on all stuff medical here! Come on!" Simon said smiling at his brother. Derek turned looking uncomfortable. "I'm gonna go downstairs. I'll just end up getting in the way." Simon leaned forward and kissed my cheek. If I thought I'd gone red earlier with him holding my hand I'd been wrong. Derek cleared his throat. "I'm glad you're feeling better Chloe." He whispered before standing up, clapping Derek on the back and leaving, closing the door behind him.

Derek came over and sat down on the bed beside me. Opening the bag he pulled out a small blue box of pills.

"Take two." He said handing me the box.

"Thanks." I said. I put them in my mouth, they were large and difficult to swallow dry.

"Oh yeah, here." He uncorked a bottle of water and pushed it towards me to wash down the pills with. Derek pulled a packet of medical wipes from the bag. "I don't think you're gonna need stitches, but these cuts still have shards of glass in them. I would've thought one of the others would've pulled them out for you. This is going to hurt." Derek said examining one of my arms. "You got a tweezers?" he asked. I nodded.

"Top drawer in the dresser." Derek walked over and pulled it out, he cleaned it on a sterile wipe before moving it over my arm. He paused for a second.

"Try not to scream, okay?" The tweezers dug into my arm and I had to grip the sheets. It hurt like hell. Derek showed me a little piece of glass. "If we don't take them out they're going to get infected and then we'll have to go to the hospital and get antibiotics, and well, in our situation we can't really do that."

"I know," I said through gritted teeth as he pulled out another piece. "Is there many more left to do?" He pulled out another piece laying it on the small pile forming on his thigh.

"A couple, there's two in your cheek too." Derek place one hand on my jaw to hold my face steady as he pulled out a piece that was embedded just beneath my eye. I watched him as he worked, a welcome distraction from the pain. His green eyes focused on the job at hand. His brow was furrowed as he concentrated. I yelped loudly as he pulled another one out.

"I think I'm gonna take another one of the tablets." I said reaching for the packet.

"That might be a good idea." He said as he pinched the second one in the cut out. I swallowed the tablet with a gulp of water. A few minutes later Derek surveyed the cuts once more. "I think that's all of them." He said rooting in the bag again. I was starting to feel a bit better, mostly thanks to the meds I presumed. I lid down on the bed and closed my eyes for a second. "Chloe sit up." Derek said, "You could have a concussion, you hit you're head pretty hard." I sat up slowly, my back ached and protested. Derek put one of his hands on my head and felt around for the lump caused by the chandelier. I groaned when his fingers tipped off of it. "It's probably best if you stay awake for now." He said. "Sorry." I rubbed my eyes sleepily.

"It's fine. Is the worst over now?" I asked.

"Yeah, I just got to bandage these up." He unrolled some bandages and began to cover up my cuts. Ever since I'd seen my first ghost I'd acquired a nice set of cuts and bruises. I mentally listed them in my head, the time I'd cut myself in the warehouse, when the girl in the knife had scraped me with the knife, the time we'd run from Liam and Ramon and now this. Nice. "What happened Chloe?" Derek asked looking down at me. I snapped out of my revere and answered him.

"The ghost of the homeless guy came after me. He was telekinetic and decided to get his own back." I said simply as Derek put a plaster over the cut on my cheek.

"No, I mean why didn't you call me?" Derek asked looking vaguely hurt.

"What good could it have done?" I said, "You couldn't have done anything to help." It came out sounding more bitter than intended. Derek recoiled and stood up.

"Well, I'm all done here. I'll send Simon up again." He wiped his hands on his jeans and walked out.

"Derek- wait!" I called after him, he didn't turn around.

**I'm glad everyone liked the last chapter and I especially want to thank burning.. for the great feedback, I love long reviews! But the things is so far, I've only got eight reviews for it… and it's on 18 favourite lists and 34 alerts, come on people would it kill you to review, ha ha! I don't want to be all like, "Give me … reviews or no more chapters!" **

**I'm going to Spain on Sunday so there won't be a chapter next week but you never know there might be two the following. Jennifer. xxx  
**


	7. Chapter 7

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers.**

"You look ten times better this morning than you did last night." Simon said smiling at me. He was holding an old paint stained wooden tray in his arms. "Breakfast." Simon announced proudly as he set it down on my lap before sitting down at the bottom of my bed. I sat up setting my pillows up straight. On the tray was a bowl of Cheerios, a slice of toast, butter and a glass of orange juice. I hadn't eaten since lunch yesterday but the smell of the toast was turning my stomach. The melted butter on top had me holding in a gag. Simon watched me and he looked so proud of his meal that I couldn't help but pick up my spoon and shove a few Cheerios into my mouth.

"Mmmn." I said swallowing over the lump in my throat. Simon beamed at me and flopped down to lie on the bed. "What's all this in aid of anyway?" I asked taking a sip of orange juice before replacing it on the tray.

"A chandelier fell on you and you were attacked by a ghost. I thought it was about time someone cut you some slack. Besides, why does there even have to be a reason?" He propped himself up on elbow and looked at me. I felt my cheeks go red and looked away breaking our gaze.

"What?" I said. "Is there something on my face?" I put a hand up to my face and rubbed my cheek. Simon shook his head and looked down at his hands. Suddenly I felt very conscious of the fact that I hadn't brushed my teeth since last night and that I was covered in scars. Plus, I had a huge spot on my cheek.

I put my hand up to my hair and tried to run it through in the hope of clearing it. It got caught on a tangle before it had even moved an inch. I grabbed a hair tie off my locker and tried to pull the mop that was my hair back into something that vaguely resembled human hair as opposed to the matted hair of a Shetland pony. I ate another bite of my cereal before laying the tray down on the ground beside the bed. I lay down again and squeezed my eyes shut. My entire body ached from my ears to my baby toe.

"You okay?" Simon asked, standing up. "Do you want me to get you some more meds?"

"Please." I said gratefully. Simon crouched down on the floor and rooted in the bag to find some pain killers. He handed them to me and I examined them for a second before putting them in my mouth.

"I'm not trying to poison you y'know." he said with a smirk. "I may not know as much as Derek but I can tell candies from meds." I smiled back holding back a yawn. I was tired, I hadn't slept well last night, my head had been reeling and I'd been feeling bad about how I had handled the situation with Derek. Derek. What was I going to do about Derek? Out of the corner of my eye I saw Simon suddenly lurch towards me and then his lips crashed down on mine.

My eyes opened wide with shock as Simon reached one hand up to hold the back of my neck. I was too shocked to pull away as his lips moved passionately against mine. This wasn't how I had imagined my first kiss to be. It most certainly wasn't like in the movies, y'know with the romantic music playing and the sun setting. And for one thing there were definitely no fireworks, choirs or a full orchestra playing just for us alone to hear. There wasn't even a string quartet. Besides this felt wrong. It felt like a betrayal, which is stupid. Who would I be betraying? Most certainly not Derek. Wait how did Derek even come into this train of thought? I pulled back as soon as my body caught up to my head. What the hell was I doing? Simon looked at me his eyes wide in shock. He looked at me for a minute until I couldn't hold his burning gaze any longer.

"S-Simon I'm s-sorry." I started to say. But he cut me off. His fists clenching into balls and his eyes hardening.

"Save it." he said standing up and turning on his heel. He walked out of the room closing the door behind him with a bang. Groaning, I lid back down on the bed and pulled my pillow up to cover my face. I screamed muffling the noise against the downy pillow. I wanted to scream and kick someone. Why was this happening to me? Why did I have to be a necromancer? Why did I not like Simon kissing me? Why wasn't Derek speaking to me?

The door swung open revealing Tori. She was bright eyed and bounded over to the bed. No doubt she wanted to know why Simon had just stormed out of here and Derek was not speaking to me.

"So?" Tori asked eagerly. "What just happened here?" If this some teenage romantic comedy I would reveal all to Tori and we would both pledge to stay single forever before she straightened my hair and I did her make-up. But then again, as I constantly seemed to forget, this is real life.

"Nothing Tori." I grumbled. "Besides, it's none of your business." Tori raised an eyebrow.

"No. Need to snap." She hesitated before she continued. "If he did anything he shouldn't have, I can punch him for you. He wouldn't dream of hitting me back, if he knows what's good for him anyway." I shook my head vigorously.

"Of course not." I said. "He kissed me." I looked away from her not wanting to see her expression.

"He _what_?!" Tori said. "Her expression torn between anger and surprise. I looked up. It was my turn to raise an eyebrow. "Ugh, I mean, am, whatever." Tori blushed and picked at the bedspread. "It was so obvious that he had the hots for you. Both of them do." It was my turn to blush, and I did, like a tomato.

"W-what? Who?" I asked. She couldn't mean Derek. Could she?

"Simon and Derek. Who else? Who did you think I was going to say? Owen and Andrew? Why? Have either of them been acting pervy?"

"Derek?" I said ignoring the second half of her question. "You're wrong. He hates me." Tori laughed.

"Is that what you think? God you're naïve! Have you seen the way he looks at you? Stupid question." She mock hit herself on the forehead. "You wouldn't notice if he walked around after you with a sign screaming 'I'm in love with you Chloe!'" I looked at her darkly.

"Shut up. You don't know what you're talking about." Tori laughed and walked towards the door.

"I'll bring down you're tray for you. I want some coffee. Do you want some?" Surprised, I nodded. Had Tori and I finally bonded? While talking about boys? Did it just get colder in here, yup, hell just froze over.

Suddenly there was a bang; I turned my head towards the window just in time to see a flash of white blue light. I looked at Tori. Outside I heard shouts. Tori dropped the tray when another flash of light came again. I pushed back the bed spread and jumped up. I heard footsteps on the stairs and shouts.

Derek! My head screamed.

"Shit." I heard Tori say. "Hurry Chloe." Tori reached out to me and grabbed my hand pulling me through the door. We ran to the end of the hall. My heart felt like it was going to beat straight through my chest. Downstairs was filled with smoke and I could just make out Simon against a wall. Tori's mother standing in front of him. Her eyes were vicious. Tori screamed shrilly. Mrs. Enright turned to face us. Simon tried to make a dash while she was distracted.

"Run Chloe!" he shouted, his eyes desperate. Tori's mother hit him with a spell and he crumpled to the ground.

"Hello darling." Her eyes were sinister and her red lips stretched into a sick grin. I looked at Tori, she was pale and her eyes were narrowed with pure hatred.

"Bitch." She shouted. Her mother tutted.

"You're going to be sorry for that. Jacob. David." She called. Out of no where a large pair of arms wrapped around me from behind. I screamed. I looked at Tori. A tall man with dark, sunken eyes had his arms wrapped securely around her. He lifted her off the ground as she tried to kick him in the shin.

"We are really going to have to teach you some manners." Mrs. Enright said and she aimed a spell at Tori. Tori started to scream obscenities at her but before she could get the full word out her eyes shut and her head fell to the side. Mrs. Enright turned and focused her attentions on me.

"The one that got away. You were quite the spoiled little brat weren't you? I'm sure you will be pleased to know that I personally took care of your aunt. Treachery is something we do not stand for." I screamed again.

"You bitch! How could you!?" She laughed. Over her shoulder I could see Derek.

"Chloe!" he roared as he ran towards the steps. He was okay! I delivered a sharp kick to my captor's knee cap causing him to grunt before tightening his grip. I looked at Mrs. Enright. Her face was cold and menacing. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was Derek's face twist into a look of anguish as Mrs. Enright uttered her spell.

**Author's Note: Apologies for the lack of updates, I know it's taken an obscene amount of time but I'm sure most of you can sympathize being back at school for over a month now and it feels like I have never been gone. It sucks being back but what can you do? I've been pulling six 9-6 days a week because I do after school study and work 9-6 Saturdays so the last thing I felt like doing was writing when I got home. I have the next few chapters planned out in my head so I am hoping to have the next chapter up before the end of the weekend, Tuesday at the very latest!!! In actual fact, when I sat down to write this, I knew what was happening in the next chapter but had to write this one to lead into that. Look out for an update on my other ****fic's Darkest Powers One Shots and my Twilight fic Love & Hate in the next week, I am in a writing mood and am feeling horribly guilty for neglecting them! Let me know what everyone thinks. Ideas, suggestions, critiques, comments! Let me know!!! Jennifer XXX**


	8. Chapter 8

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers**

The beeping of an alarm woke me and I sat up startled. I was in… my room. Downstairs I could hear a vacuum cleaner going and I heard Annette, our housekeeper's voice warbling a tune. I rubbed my eyes and blinked a few times for extra measure. My room?

I shook my head and pushed back my duvet. Of course, where else would I be. It's just that everything seemed so strange and out of focus. My head was pounding and I rubbed my temple to try and sooth the ache. I got up and walked to my closet grabbing a long sleeved t-shirt and a pair of jeans before pulling them on. I walked to the bathroom closing my door behind me.

Looking in the mirror I examined my face. My hair! What the hell! It was a dark blackish brown. When had this happened? I tapped my fingers against the edge of the sink as I tried to remember. Why was this so hard? Streaks! Red streaks, I finally decided. My normally blonde hair had red streaks in it. Why did I not remember dying my hair, especially to a shade so different to my own? Turning on the tap I scooped two handfuls of water onto my face before reaching for the blue towel hanging off a rail beside me. I patted my face dry hitting a sensitive lump near my forehead. I hissed at the pain and peered closely at the mirror. Up close I could see that the area was slightly raised and red. Also, I noticed my cheeks were covered in tiny small marks, not unlike chicken-pox scars. Had they been there all along? Somehow I think that I would have noticed. Was I after going crazy?

Downstairs I was greeted my Annette tapping her watch impatiently.

"Hurry up Chloe. You'll be late, you need to get to bed earlier if you can't get up at a reasonable time, or at the very least set your alarm clock for earlier!" She said exasperated handing me an apple and cereal bar. "Go! Milos has been parked out front for five minutes. You're lucky that he doesn't start the meter until you get in!" She all but pushed me out the front door thrusting my bag at me.

Outside the sky was grey and I spotted Milos parked in his usual spot in his bright yellow cab. He had today's newspaper propped up in front of him. Opening the door I sat down.

"Hey kiddo! Long time no see!" He said folding up the paper and laying it onto the passenger seat beside him. I nodded, why hadn't he seen me?

"Yeah, you too." I said smiling to be polite.

"I was pretty worried about you when I arrived that morning. I was waiting about a half an hour before Annette came out and told me what had happened. I was just going to run out and buzz up for you. I was telling myself that you were just late, but you're never that late. Annette scared me half to death when she told me."

"Told you what?" I asked. Instantly I regretted asking. Milos turned around and looked at me, his eyes scrunched up.

"About you being … sick. That you had to go away to that place, the house or home, whatever it's called, for a while." His face became concerned for a minute. "Are you feeling okay? You look kind of pale." I shook my head.

"Fine. I feel fine." I said, knowing I sounded over eager and edgy.

"If you're sure." Milos pulled off of the kerb. The car was unusually quiet as we crawled through the early morning traffic. Milos flicked on the radio and tuned into the morning news. I ran a hand through my hair, conscious that I had forgotten to brush it. I winced when my hand hit another sore spot on my skull. What had I done to hurt it? For the second time this morning I scanned back through my mental catalogue of memories and came up blank.

The last thing I remembered was being freaked by a ghost at school. A ghost? What was I thinking? No such thing! Had I suddenly returned to being a six year old on Halloween? I imagined it. That was it. I resisted the urge to snap my fingers like a scientist in a movie after coming up with the solution to whatever issue was tormenting him and the other cast members. I was schizophrenic! Not something that one usually would be pleased about but at least I had remembered. I wasn't crazy though, schizophrenic came pretty damn close.

Dad and Aunt Lauren had sent me to that place. I thought for a second trying to remember the name. Lyle House; that was it! There had been other kids there two. Three girls and three boys. But one girl, Lisa or Lizzie or something, had left and so had a boy. The others, they were even fainter. One girl had short hair, dark brown or black maybe? The other was shorter more tan but I couldn't be sure. The boys were even harder to remember. One Asian I think and the other very tall and strong looking.

Why could I not remember these people more clearly? I could remember the incident at the school like it had just been yesterday but I could not even visualise the others from Lyle House's faces. Something was wrong with me.

Well, obviously Chloe, my mind chided. You are schizophrenic.

We pulled up in front of the school, the familiar building that up until recently had just been a school to me now felt like an executioners. What was everyone going to think about me? I wasn't usually one to worry about things like that, but I had been brought out of there in drugged out of it to stop me hurting anyone. Those who hadn't seen would surely have been told about it.

"This is your stop, kiddo." Milos said turning back to face me.

"Thanks Milos." I said pulling the twenty Annette had given me to pay for the fare with. "See you later." Milos nodded as he handed me back my change dropping the coins into my palm.

"Enjoy your day." I swallowed. Doubt that. I walked away from the car and headed towards the building keeping my head down, staring determinably at my feet. I reached my locker without so much as looking at one person. I entered my combination, twisting the dial to enter the familiar code. I heard Kari, Beth and Miranda's familiar voices accompanied by their giggles floating down the corridor towards me. What were they going to say?

"Oh my God!" I heard Miranda whisper. "She's back!" I turned around and smiled at them. The three of them closed their gaping mouths quickly and smiled smiles that did not quite reach their eyes.

"Hi guys." I said waving as I slammed my locker closed clutching my math textbook to my chest. "How are all of you?" I asked walking towards them.

"We're good." Beth answered staring at the ground. She scuffed her shoe off the worn linoleum floor. "How have you been?"

"Good." I lied.

"Your hair, it's different." Miranda said gesturing towards the darker hue.

"Yeah, it is." I answered. An awkward silence fell.

"Well, we, um better get going to class." Kari said and she smiled at me again. "Good talking to you Chloe, we'll have to catch up later." They were gone as soon as they came but this time not giggling and chatting but in a whispers and sighs. We were all in first period homeroom together. They knew that. They just wanted to avoid me. I couldn't really blame them. If the situation was flipped I don't know what I would've done either. I would like to think that I would've given my friend a hug and told her that she could tell me anything, but obviously that was not how the girls were going to play it.

I opened the door to my homeroom and it went silent. It was just too easy to guess what, or who in this case they had all been talking about. The Kari, Beth and Miranda had the good grace to look ashamed and avoid my gaze. I sat into the only free seat in the room. Right at the front and dead centre, great.

"Hey." I said turning to Nate, a fellow member of the school's film club, "How are you?" Nate shifted in his seat, his cheeks darkening.

"Okay. You coming to the meeting today?" he smiled, "We're discussing horrors, you're favourite." I laughed.

"Wouldn't miss it." It was that at least one person was not acting like I had the flu; come on people, schizophrenia is not contagious! I laughed again and I saw the tips of Nate's ears darken. He looked at me out of the corner of his eye before going back to drawing cubes in his notebook. Damn it. I groaned inwardly. The one person who just spoke to me like they had before this had all happened now thought I was a crazed weirdo, why did I keep laughing?

The teacher, a Ms. Roberts entered the room. When she saw me she did a obvious double-take.

"C-chloe." She spluttered taking a step back towards the door. "You're back." I nodded. Well obviously. What did she think I was - a ghost? "Well o-okay then. Very well, I will uh – sorry I will just take the attendance." She read through all the names only pausing slightly before saying my name. I made her nervous. Of course, I was dangerous; I had attacked someone, another teacher. Squeezing my eyes shut tight, I felt as if the walls were closing in around me. Everyone was whispering and every few seconds I heard my name mentioned. Ms. Robert's wheeled a television set to the middle of the room picking up the remote to turn it on for morning announcements. Cautiously, I raised my hand.

"Yes?" Ms. Roberts asked eyeing me warily.

"May I be excused to go to the toilet please?" I asked in my politest voice.

"Of course." She sounded relieved as she rooted in her top desk drawer for a hall pass. I stood up and pushed my chair under my desk aware of all the stares of my class mates burning into the back of my head. She extended her hand to me, the hall pass held between two fingers. Did people really think I was contagious? I made a point to brush my hand off of hers as I took it from her.

"Thank you." I said as I walked out the door. The corridor was silent as I walked towards the girl's restroom.

"Chloe!" I heard a boy's voice exclaim. I spun around. A large boy was coming towards me. I took a step back.

"W-who are you?" I asked. He had black hair and bright green eyes.

"Chloe, it's me." He said stopping in front of me. I shook me head.

"I-I d-don't know w-who you are." I said and took another step back. The boy or should I say man, he wasn't built like any guy I knew, looked confused.

"What are you talking about Chloe? It's me…Derek."

**Author's Note: Oooh! (Sarcasm) Bet you weren't expecting that! I know I promised a fast update but I'm sorry, I have been really busy. Besides, eight days isn't thaaat long! School and work and hanging out with my friends takes up more of my time than I had thought! I know this chapter is confusing at the start but let me know what you all think about where the story is going – don't worry the others will be back soon! Plus, I wasn't sure what Americans call the bathroom; do you say bathroom or rest room? I know when I was there when I asked someone where the bathroom was they told me there were no showers so I was force to rephrase! I will try and get the next chapter up soon as of eight hours ago I am officially on mid-term break for the next week! It sure took long enough for it to come around! Jennifer xxx**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own Darkest Powers.**

"I don't know you." I said my voice firmer as I assessed the situation. No reason to stutter. I wasn't lying. I _didn't _know this boy. Or should I say man? His face looked young, older than me though, sixteen or seventeen maybe, but his body? He was tall and broad; he could have crushed my skull with one hand. His expression looked pained and he grimaced.

"Chloe, you _do_ know me." He insisted. "It's Derek. Simon's brother?"

"I'm sorry Derek. I d-don't know who you are." Derek. Derek, Derek, Derek. That name sounded… familiar. I didn't know who he was but my lips remembered forming that name before, many times. It seemed safe. He ran a hand through his just a bit too long black hair and let out a sigh of frustration.

"Remember, Lyle House? Tori, Liz, Rae? Simon and me?" His eyes were intense and he took a step towards me grabbing my forearm. I winced and tried to pull back. He flinched and jumped back. Obviously thinking that his forwardness had scared me. It didn't. It should have, somewhere at the back of my mind I knew this but for some reason I couldn't bring my self to be too alarmed by his presence. One thing startled me though; my arm had throbbed painfully where he had grabbed it.

"Sorry." He said jumping back. "Your arm…" he trailed off. "Your arm!" he exclaimed. "Pull up your shirt." He gestured vigorously with his hand. My eyebrows rose up and quickly realising his mistake a dark red blush began to stain his cheeks. "Your, ah, sleeve, I mean." He raised his gaze from the floor when I begun to tug up my long-sleeved shirt. I held his stare as I pulled it up. Then, breaking our glance, we both looked down at my arm. I gasped, loudly.

"M-my arm!" I exclaimed tilting my face up to look at him. He looked a small bit smug but a whole lot of sorry as he took in my arm. A large mark ran down the length of my forearm. It well into the healing process by now but it looked deep and must have hurt like hell when it happened. I squeezed my eyes tightly shut as I tried to remember how it had happened. I groaned loudly when I couldn't.

"You fell on some glass." Derek said soothingly reaching forward to tug my shirt back down. "When we were escaping Lyle House." Lyle House. There was that name again. Lyle House, I thought hard. Milos had said I'd been in some sort of group home, maybe this was the place.

"Is Lyle House a group home for kids with, ugh, mental problems." Derek's eyes lit up and he smiled, glad that I had remembered at least something. I didn't have the heart to tell him that this was second hand information.

"Yeah," he laughed sarcastically. "Something like that."

"Wait." I said, my mind catching up with some of the other details he'd mentioned.

"We _escaped_ from there? As in, like, ran away." He nodded gravely.

"Yeah, you, me, Simon and Rae. Only, you and Rae got caught." Oh. Okay. I took a step back. This guy was a mental hospital escapee. Maybe my creepy radar wasn't what it should be.

"Well, ah, _Derek_? That's your name right? I have to get back to class. It's been good seeing you." I turned and walked briskly back to the classroom, terrified to look behind me. Suddenly a hand clamped over my mouth. Derek.

"I'm sorry Chloe." He said as I screamed against his hand. "You'll thank me for it later." Using one hand he pulled a cell phone out of his pocket and quickly punched in number. Oh my God. I was being kidnapped, _kidnapped!_ By a psycho who claimed he knew me from our time together at a mental hospital.

"Simon." Derek said quietly into the phone as he pulled me backwards down to corridor. "I've got her." I heard quiet mumbling form this 'Simon'. "No. She didn't know." Derek sighed loudly as I screamed against his palm again. "Okay. I guess we'll have to. But I don't like it." Derek ended the call with click of a button. "I'm so sorry Chloe. But we've got to do this." His bright green eyes looked pained and if he wasn't holding me against my will I would've said that I felt sorry for him. Instead, I bit his thumb which had been resting on my lip. He let out a string of curse words but kept moving.

We stopped at a bathroom. A boy's bathroom to be precise. I whirled my head back around to stare at him. What the hell?! My mind was reeling. Was he going to… The thought ended abruptly as he pushed open to door and I was faced with two more people. A girl with short cropped black hair and a boy with tanned golden skin.

"Hey Chloe." The boy said waving at me sadly. The girl held a large syringe in her hand, her eyes hard. I tried as hard as I could to pull out of Derek's grasp as she moved towards me.

"You're going to have to hold her still Derek." She said her tone exasperated. He did, gripping my arms tightly and holding them to my sides. To do so, he had to move his hand from my mouth and I let out a long piercing shriek.

"Jesus!" she said jabbing the needle in me quickly with one hand while thrusting the other over my mouth. "Calm down!"

"Tori," the boys said advancing, "She doesn't know who we are. She must think we're going to kill her." The girl, Tori, rolled her eyes and pulled the syringe out of my arm. It hurt but almost instantly everything started to feel sort of foggy. The room began to swim before my eyes. I tried to move my arms to break free of Derek's hold and make a run for it but I knew that I stood no real chance. There were three of them, all taller and stronger than me and I was drugged. Derek loosened his grip and lifted me up, cradling me in his large arms.

"Quick." He said. "We've got to get out of here." Then, I blacked out.

**  
*****

"She's coming around." A low voice beside me said and squeezed my fingers. Where was I?

"About time." Grumbled a voice, female this time.

"Shut up Tori." Said another male voice, slightly higher than the first.

"Shut up. _Both _of you." Repeated the first. Derek. It was Derek's voice! Tori and Simon too. I opened my eyes and looked around. The world was hazy; looking how I imagined it would to a drunk. Derek looked down at me, his jewel like eyes lighting up when he smiled. "Hey Chloe," he said quietly. I smiled back slightly, my muscles slow and sluggish. "Do you know who I am?" What?

"Y-your Derek." I narrowed my eyes at him slightly. "Did I hit my head?" He shook his head.

"Does the word necromancer mean anything to you?" Okay. What the hell was up with him? I looked at Simon and Tori. They also looked concerned.

"Um, yeah." I said trying to sit up. Derek rested a hand on my shoulder to hold me down. I didn't much feel like putting up a fight so I let him win. "I'm one." He breathed a sigh of relief.

"You're okay." I nodded again. "Do you want a drink?" I shook my head but he handed my an already unscrewed bottle of water and propped my up slightly so I could drink some without spilling it all down my front.

"What happened?" I looked around at the three of their faces and took in our scenery. We were in a tent. Rain pounded against the outermost layer of it, the pitter pattering of it was comforting.

"My mother." Said Tori. "She cast a spell on you. We figured out the spell to fix you though. It wasn't that hard. The hard part was finding it. You forgot all of this. Everything that had happened at Lyle House." My eyes bugged out.

"What?" This time when I went to sit up Derek let me. Though I quickly regretted it was my stomach somersaulted. "Did it work? Did I?"

"Yeah." Simon answered his brow creasing. "You didn't know who we were." He looked slightly wounded though he tried to hide it.

"Where are we? Why aren't we at the safe house?" Derek and Simon exchanged a glance.

"Chloe," Derek said. "The safe house is gone."

**Okay. I am really, really sorry that I have not updated this story in so long. I know that it's no excuse but I'm in secondary school from nine until six everyday and then on the Saturdays I work from half twelve till half nine. It's not fun and I'm constantly tired, but it'll all be worth it when my results will (hopefully) pay off. There are six weeks to the summer holidays and I officially can't wait. Thanks to all those who reviewed, encouraging me to continue writing. I'm lazy and they were the kick I needed! Thanks everyone for sticking with me!**

**Plus, I know I call myself a fan but haven't yet read **_**The Reckoning**_** yet. I know, I know, and I call myself a fan. But at least this will hopefully be just a little more original than if I had! One thing I on a forum though was that Tori and Simon are half-siblings. I was majorly shocked. Jen**


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